[fse-esf] Charter of principles of another Europe

[Franco Russo]

Michel,
la traduction en anglais des rende-comptus
amitiés
franco russo

Charter of principles of  another Europe

 

 

Stockholm meeting, EPA

 

Friday 14 September, during the EPA, the Charter network held a 5 hour meeting, in which 30 were present. After the discussion, which was concentrated on the assessment and utilization of the Charter, we made the decision not to modify the text, as defined in Rostock, and to send the amendments to the Web site www.europe4all.com  and to the mailing list charter at ras.eu.org , so as to circulate them. At the same time, we decided to make them known to the Brussels assembly.

The most critical points were: the Eastern questions; the secularism; the environment; democracy and EU institutions; the effectiveness of equality. In fact, most of these points have been object of some proposals put forward in the Brussels assembly, where, of course, other questions were raised.

All people underlined the openness of the Charter process, and hoped that the Brussels assembly would be the occasion for deepening the principles and defining new campaigns.

Openness, continuity and enlargement are the common ground definitively consolidated; everyone stressed that the controversial questions should be looked at in order to reach a consensus or to make clear the divergences.

The decision to present the Rostock text was the expression of the willingness to start an information campaign and to involve other organizations in the Charter process. We wanted to start a new phase from Brussels on.

Two last pieces of information: Annick Coupé explained the Charter process during the meeting on 'Work and globalization'; Alessandra Mecozzi spoke to the Sunday plenary assembly about the decisions made by our network.

 

 

Brussels assembly, Thursday 20 September

 

65 people from 8 countries attended the sessions, and among them 5 Euro Mps.

 

First session.

Francis Wurtz made a welcoming speech stressing the difficulties of raising opposition and even critical appraisal of the new 'modified Treaty' among European Mps who were against the Constitutional Treaty.

Franco Russo introduced the debate on the Charter, which saw 25 contributions from the floor - including those of the Mps Musacchio, Zimmer, Kohlicek . Some speeches were about the Charter of principles, others raised some criticisms - already heard in the Stockholm debate -, others asked for deeper analysis and expansion of some themes such as environment, secularism, commercial treaties between EU and the Southern countries, Eastern problems (poverty, social rights, democracy), workers' rights, NATO and military policies of the EU, migrants, national State, democracy and EU institutions.

All speakers agreed on the openness and on the step-by-step nature of the Charter process, of which everyone stressed the link with the mobilizations of the antineoliberal movements present in the Social forum: the Charter - it was affirmed - is not the product of academic research but the identification of the principles which are the guides of the struggles against the capitalist globalization.

For us, who want another Europe, the geographical and political borders are not the same as those of the EU, although the EU is the predominant element of the historical experience of building European institutions.

 

The second session , chaired by Annick Coupé and Sven Giegold, was divided in two parts.

The first was introduced by Pierre Khalfa speaking about the 'modified Treaty', which will be discussed by the European Council on October 18-19 in Lisbon. Khalfa's analysis is available on the Web site (www.europe4all.com ) and it has been diffused on the ESF mailing list. At the end of the introduction, Khalfa put forward some proposals, the most important of which was the campaign against the 'modified Treaty', and with this aim in mind he proposed an appeal which we wish to present to the next EPA in Istanbul (from November 30 to December 2). Our specific aim is to intervene with different initiatives during the ratification process which is supposed to last until the 2009 European elections.

A group will work with Khalfa to prepare a draft, which will be circulated through the mailing list.

Before the second part a South Korea trade-unionist delegation expressed the reasons of their opposition to the commercial Treaty between EU and South Korea.

The second part was opened by S. Giegold, who introduced the question of the best ways to continue the Charter process. 20 people took the floor, in a very lively but fruitful discussion, from which the following proposals were generated:

-         the necessity to publicise the Charter through the Web site, but this needs its translation in different languages, in order to organize information campaigns at national level;

-         it was stressed the link between the Charter network and the ESF, also for this reason we took  as temporal and political horizon the Malmoe ESF (September 18-21, 2008);

-         we decided  not  to modify the current  text of the Charter by amendments, rather it was preferred   to build some working groups - with no rigid  prescriptions, as M. Rouseeau said - on the controversial themes or issues which deserve further analysis; but the most important thing in this new process is to involve new subjects and organizations, most of all the networks of the ESF;

-         the Charter - it was affirmed - is a Charter of principles for the movement's practice, that is for inspiring and guiding struggles; therefore it is so important to establish links with the other networks, which will allow the enlargement  of the political and cultural horizon; moreover only these links can facilitate new campaigns;

-         the mobilization day on January 26 can be the first opportunity for those new campaigns;

-         the working groups should be formed from below by using the mailing list (charter at ras.eu.org );

-         some groups have already be suggested:

  1..  democracy and EU institutions (Giegold, Golemis, Manitakis, Russo, Vallinoto);
  2..  Europe and the world,  with special attention to commercial treaties (Gabriel, Mecozzi);
  3..  enlargement and involvement of other networks (Dellheim, Delmas, Theodorokopoulo);
  4..  workers' rights and labour questions in general (Coupé, Mecozzi, Guglielmi);
  5..  economic and social democracy (Gauthier, Mangenot);
  6..  environment (Ricoveri);
  7..  secularism;
  8.. ..
  9.. ...;
-         we thanked our Austrian friends for their work in building the Web site, of which Leo Gabriel and the Austrian friends are in charge; but now we need a kind of administrator at national level (one for each country);

-         we need to solve the problem of financial support;

-         the next appointment of the Charter network will be at the Istanbul EPA on November 30, probably at 2 pm

 

(ed. by Franco Russo)

 

 

 

 

 

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